


Chains

by AikoIsari



Series: Gold Thread [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, Digimon World Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Bodyguard, Fantastic Racism, Half-Human, Mind Games, Multi, Pre-Slash, Revolution, Romantic Friendship, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-22 11:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 6,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4833749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this world, where anything Digimon related is taboo at best, Taiga knows his only real worth is bought, not had. The money is the best loyalty you can ask for, especially from a rich, arrogant human like this one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Taiga has always hated waiting. He has always hated being  _kept_ waiting even more.

He ignores the people's eyes slipping past him and yawns, feeling the early morning gnawing at his bones. He could have slept in a few more hours at this rate, no matter how long it takes to get across the Rainbow Bridge. He regards one man as he steps around his leaning figure, like the guy can somehow see the codes tattooed on his arms. Taiga adjusts his long black sleeves at the idea.  _Where_ is  _this guy?_

His employer should be on his way, or even here by now. Taiga clicks his tongue absently. His new  _owner_  is coming. Technical term should be banned in a court of 'this is completely inhumane'. Of course, no one would because of reasons. Stupid reasons at that.

His V-Pet throbs in his pocket, as if sensing his distress. He slips one hand in and soothes the creature without looking. He's had plenty of practice at it by now. Taiga feels his goggles making to slip over his nose and pulls them back up over his forehead, wiping sweat from his brow. Maybe he should have bought that other popsicle. Wouldn't that have been professional? In a sweater on a summer day, slurping an icy treat when a weirdo richie comes around in their fancy car and tells you to beat people in the ass? Great image, that. Really great start to the relationship. Not that he knows what he's doing for the crooked and crazy and loaded whoever, anyway.

He glances at his watch, which sparkles in the sun. Someone is looking at him. It's not who he's waiting to meet, that's for darn sure. It's a bystander, noting that he's loitering. Taiga mentally dares the man to tattle, imagining how well that would go over. It would just be his 'black cat curse' acting up all over again, according to Mirei.

He would never call it a curse.

If only she could have come with him to this, to stare blankly at passerby and look at all the books she wants to read. She would be able to tell him the client's fate in advance so he would know how much money to wrangle out of them for a paycheck.

Taiga lifts his head, feeling the air change before the car arrives on the street. Thick, cold gust, power, blood wrapped in something that's in that car. Nobody really notices outside of it. Digimaru buzzes the V-Pet. Taiga taps it. No need to make the client panic.

He pretends the whispers aren't there. Could they have been any flashier in that bright car? If this is why they were late, Taiga intends to ask for a pay raise on the spot. It's way too much to be hired to help someone who drives in a sleek, beautiful car like this and not expect attacks for every breath they took.

He watches the door open and someone step out of the car. Dark hair, monochrome clothes, an easy smirk.

 _Dear Yggdrasil help me in my time of need,_  he thinks.

(He knows, realistically, that she can't these days, but it's a nice hope.)

He's playing housemaid to some rich  _kid_. It isn't even an adult, who he could con into giving him a little extra. Judging by the pin on his collar, he's a very important rich kid.

"Apologies, for the delay." The boy -young man, dear Yggdrasil, they are the same age!- says, quiet voice betraying just how sorry he actually is. Taiga tries not to twitch. "There was an incident at home. It is currently being rectified. You are…?"

"Taiga," he answers, tapping Digimaru's screen again. "Yourself?"

"No last name?" The other shrugs the words away. "Kuga Yuuya. Let's get this off to a good start, shall we?"

Taiga wants to swear, loudly. He only nods. Of course.

He was going to  _kill_ Niko for this.


	2. 2

"You're joking."

Taiga glares over his sytrofoam tea cup, which really was an insult if he thought about it. Styrofoam and tea. Eurgh. Man, his friends had spoiled him. "Does it look like it?"

Niko sighs, fiddling with his V-Pet app and putting it back in the pocket of his lab coat. Taiga shoots a glance towards the security cameras (most of which were dummies but you never knew which ones) and looks back at his best friend. Niko still doesn't look comfortable in the lab coat, even after three months with the thing. It's a reputation too big. "How was I supposed to know that the client dad picked was his boss' son?" the blond says, rolling his eyes.

"Ask?" Taiga tries not to scowl. It's hard. He should be grateful, he knows. This is probably the best job Nikolai could have scored him without risking either of their asses under fire from the law. Still.

Damn his honor. If it weren't for that, he'd be on a soft mattress and learning new coding techniques. Not here, surrounded by people who mostly didn't freaking like him, or like his kind anyway.

Nikolai wipes his glasses with his coat sleeve. "Yeah, and hear dad lecture me again about our friendship and how mom wouldn't want me to question him as much as I am and  _blah blah blah_. I swear that Vitium Project… it's screwing with his head."

Taiga winces. "Yeah I noticed." Yuuya mentioned it at least twice during the drive up here. "This kid's got high clearance too, yeah?"

"Highest as high can get without sounding too privileged." Niko swallows a gulp of water and rubs his throat. "Like, he can get his Digimon on the server, patrol and all of that but he can't actually get into files without a serious amount of questions, at least the further back it goes. Not on his own anyway."

"They let his Digimon into files?" Had to wonder what that said for his.

Digimaru let out a couple of beeps.

Niko snorts. "Yeah, they're all terrified of it is why. Probably gets as many glares as we do."

Taiga scoffs. "Well, it has a weird smell, colder..." Niko raises one eyebrow and he sighs. "You know what I mean."

"Unfortunately yeah." Nikolai grimaces. "Rumors say he hacked it. He'd be a pro at a coliseum with the guy."

Taiga's eyes narrowed. "He  _what?_ "

That was not going to slide. Never. You didn't hack your precious teammate. You let them live… they were alive.

Then again, he was one of the few people who knew that.

Taiga sighs, reigning in his temper with every bit of strength he could. "Thanks, now I'm not going to plot his demise."

"You said you needed the pay to help her, to help  _them_." Niko sighs. "I'm with you on that, trust me… anything to get  _over there,_ but we've gotta wait. You know that."

Taiga rubs his eyes. "I know… I do." he drains the last dregs of his green tea. "I should get back. Bet the meeting's almost over."

"Better you than me," Niko says sympathetically. "I'd kill the snot."

Taiga laughs and turns away. At least he had two someones on his side here.


	3. 3

Yuuya greets him with a smirk and a recently filled coffee cup. "Do all your staff get treated this well?" Taiga couldn't help but comment as he shut the door and took it. Okay, he is still mad about the hacking thing. He knows he shouldn't bother to be. This guy won't care. Still irritates, considering…

_It's a crime, Taiga._

He twitches and sits down, almost missing Yuuya's answer. He had insisted on no last names. 'Doesn't seem fair if I don't get one from you,' he had said.

Hah. Funny. Being accountless was funny.

Whatever.

He tunes back into Yuuya scanning documents with fast eyes, passing them occasionally to the pink-haired girl at his right. She chews her lip thoughtfully before she speaks. "This is still unrealistic." She watches Yuuya as she speaks, but there's no hint that she's actually intimidated.

The blunt statement is almost refreshing. It's also disturbing. Taiga's suddenly aware he hasn't gotten this girl's name.

Yuuya snorts. "I know. Father wants it through anyway."

"It's going to be costly on both sides." She makes a note, rolling her eyes. "He can't really expect them to agree. He's pretty doubtful about their brains, huh?"

Yuuya smiles and the expression is somehow better and worse than he imagined it would be, especially when directed at Taiga. "I think he just has had too much fun being right. What do you think, Taiga?"

Taiga blinks. "Sorry, I don't follow."

"You were listening, dangerous habit," Yuuya says, spinning the paper for him to look.

"That's eavesdropping, Yuuya," the girl says. She's shaking her head and shooting Taiga a pitying look.

Taiga hesitates, wanting to read it but his self-preservation button is itching to be pressed just as much. "Does everyone get to be this straightforward?"

"Only you and me," the girl says with a shrug, taking the paper back. Oh good, spare him the secret keeping. He's having trouble keeping the ten or so he's got. "We're responsible for keeping him alive."

Her eyes sparkle gentle white and a shudder runs up Taiga's spine.

She's like him.

Shit.

Yuuya smiles at his expression. Taiga at least hopes that's why. He doesn't have much of a file. His status is on record. The reasons aren't on record, are they?

"We're going to need help aren't we?" he says to play it off.

"Help, luck, and alcohol." She smiles sympathetically. "I've been at this a while, you'll get used to it."

_What are we saving him from, anyway?_

He's been here a few hours now. They could at least tell him that. And yet they don't.

Taiga mentally sighs and feeds Digimaru again. As the girl walks past towards the water cooler, she leans to his ear.

"You don't have to hide it."

Taiga's thumb pauses over the praise command.

Yep, he's screwed.


	4. 4

"They know."

There's no image on the video feed, but he doesn't mind. She never puts her face on screen. If someone comes into the room he is in and sees her, she would probably be hunted and, well, that will change everything.

Taiga doesn't have much patience for that sort of thing these days.

"It could be an educated guess." Her voice is slow, though he can hear the worry painting her vocal chords as much as emotion ever does. "That girl has a different smell, correct?"

"Yeah but it's more diluted." Taiga has never been good with the smell thing. He's better with his eyes, always has been. "You would recognize it better than me, I think, but..."

"No risking that," she agrees, and he hears the relief in her voice. "Be careful, please. I don't wish to lose you, even though..."

"Even though sacred law indicates you really shouldn't give two shits about me but I love that you do," Taiga interrupts. He hears her crystal laugh and his shoulders sag with lifting stress. She knows just how to help him relax. It's not fair sometimes. But that's why he's here.

"It doesn't exactly say that," she hedges, and he snickers. "Merely that there is someone else I should be concerning myself with at the moment." He doesn't have to work hard to imagine her smile. "And yet here we are."

"Yeah..." He pauses, fishing for words. "Is it all right like this, do you think? I don't need to bolt or something?"

A quiet sigh. "It's too soon to say, Taiga. You're in a very good position, you know you are. And also..."

Taiga winces. "Yeah, this is all I've got. Let's just hope when I see Yuuya's Digimon, I don't have the automatic urge to kill it with fire. Can't believe he  _hacked_ it. Speaking of which..."

"How is Nikolai these days?"

"Oh, don't even." Taiga laughs and winces. "His dad isn't sounding so hot."

"He never has." Her voice is dry and Taiga winces again. He can't blame her, not after Rina.

"Yeah, he's more determined now. I dunno what that means for Niko, but..." He trails off. She doesn't speak, but she understands. He and Niko may fight like cats after the same chicken, but they are best friends. He couldn't know about this yet, not until they were sure.

"You shouldn't keep that from him for much longer." There's a noise at the other side of the call. "Ah, I need to go. The new tenant needs a check-up."

Taiga winces. Oh, new sheltered kids are never a good sign for the other side. "How are they?"

"Their data got ripped."

Taiga felt nauseous. "It what?"

She makes a noise of annoyance. "Yes, and if you can look into that, I will be immensely grateful. Until then, please keep out of your personal trouble. Your client will be enough of a problem."

"I'll try." He hangs up and lets out a sigh. Silly Mirei.

That had comforted him only a little. He stands and leaves the break area. When he returns, Akiho and Yuuya are still talking. Their voices are lower, but just as intense.

Yuuya smirks. "Thought you had fallen asleep in there. We're just about to turn in."

Taiga sighs in relief on the inside. Thank you, Yggdrasil. Now he was just going to have to keep an eye on this idiot in his house.

_Please don't let it be a mansion._


	5. 5

Taiga is happy to find himself in a normal apartment, happier than he probably should be. Judging by Yuuya's raised eyebrow, it's a weird thing, and Taiga has to hurry to control himself. He's spent way too much time in hotels, apparently. He's spent way too much time without a home He claims the couch before Yuuya can tell him there's a bed. For some reason, it makes Yuuya laugh.

"Don't want to get too comfortable?"

Taiga snorts. "I keep expecting assassins to climb your balcony."

Yuuya laughs again. Twice in a row, is this some kind of record? "No, you don't have to worry about them. Your targets will likely be closer, more personal."

"Like Akiho?" Taiga has to question Yuuya's sanity if the bodyguards are supposed to be attempting to kill him. Maybe he considers it good training?

Yuuya shakes his head, smirking again. "Akiho is perfectly safe, Taiga, as odd as that sounds. She's probably one of the only people in the world I know won't kill me. As are you, now."

"Do I not look like a killer?" he joked, eyebrow raised.

Yuuya gave him a once over. "I'm sure you could be, if you wanted to."

Taiga's back stiffens and Digimaru beeps anxiety. Darn dino always knows. "Enjoyed that part of the file, huh?" It had been an accident, at least the killing part. He had had to fight back at the time.

"Not really enjoyed," Yuuya sits back on the other end of the couch. "Appreciated. Meant you weren't like those reports about Digits where you are always claimed you were all cold-blooded killers with human skin. At least you had the self-defense argument going for you even if no one wanted to believe it."

Taiga huffs at the slang, grabbing his rucksack and setting it in his lap like a shield. "Yeah, right. They wish. We're just different. We got rewritten, for a lot of us."

"There's even a culture?" To his credit, Yuuya sounds more interested than mortified at the sentience of 'Digits', those who are as much a part of the Digital World as the Digimon everyone hates for some reason. For many reasons.

Taiga is still holding the 'hacking' thing over Yuuya's head, but it won't hurt to talk about it. Nothing he's going to say is actually deep and important. Mirei might even think he's educating his client. Ew. God. Ew. "Don't sound so surprised," he finally says. "We're underground, not savage." The bitterness taints his words before he can stop it.

"Most people think it's the same thing." Yuuya scoffs at the end of his sentence, telling Taiga what he thinks of  _most people_.

Taiga shrugs. "You say tomato." He puts his rucksack back down, fiddling with Digimaru instead. "It's just a thing that happens. For most Digits, the other world marks us and we are pretty normal humans. Uh… there are exceptions though, but they don't like human society much." Not that most Digits were comfortable about humans in general over the past few years. Their reveals, like his own, tend to be pretty messy.

Yuuya watches him with -half-lidded eyes. "You don't think much of humans, do you?"

Taiga smiles wearily. "I used to." He looks towards the plain blinders. "You have a long day ahead of you, right? We should get to sleep."

Yuuya just continues to watch him, thoughtful eyes. Digimaru whines to be fed.

Then Yuuya smirks. "You really are an interesting man." He moves to leave the room. "Good night."

Well, what the heck is  _that_  supposed to mean?


	6. 6

When he wakes up in the middle of the night, Taiga feels his skin burning, bubbling beneath the smell of sulfur. It twists and knits, healing and burning in his imagination. He runs to the bathroom, turns on the shower. His head is clouded with smoke and it takes the sound of the bathroom faucet to clear it. He pants for air, chest heaving. he feels the sobs trying to well up. He shoves them down. He is too old for that.

He sits back on the floor, on his knees, breathing through his mouth. Damn it, damn it.

_"Can't you see how dangerous you are?"_

The fire tells him everything, the tattered goggles, the bloody knife. All of it could have gone up in ashes. All of it did. He was just trying to, just wanting to-

Green hair dances out of his sight.

All except him, the only one that should have been.

He heaves and the chains in his skin tighten their grip. Taiga doesn't cry, aches with the force of needing to.

He gets up and goes back to the couch. His fingers curl around a hand that isn't there. His eyes shut.

He remembers the wandering, wandering until he was on the steps of an abandoned church. Wandering with bare feet and a bloated body. Dull eyes, no food.

Her hands, holding a wet cloth. Her hands holding a bowl of broth. Tending, tending.

For her. He's doing this for her. For her to live again. For her to love again.

Even if. Even if.

He falls asleep. He doesn't notice the dark eyes watching him from the kitchenette.

Yuuya takes his tea and returns to bed.


	7. 7

Yuuya watches his bodyguards the next day over his laptop screen and between sips of coffee. Akiho doesn't react to his staring; she stopped doing that ages ago, since she got taken in really. Taiga, however, twitches. It's a natural reaction, he supposes.  _Digits_  are almost always on the run from something. Silly laws.

The  _smell_  is all over him too, the smell of scales and flames. It must be worse to Akiho. His senses have never been fantastic.

He closes his eyes and breathes in cinnamon and pumpkin spice to tune it out, turning back to the paperwork. Black snarls softly from his pet at the other Digimon in the room. It's either them or the Digits and for the life of him, Yuuya can't understand why that would be any better. Well, he supposes their unnatural scent could do it, but considering the dragon man, that's pretty damn hypocritical.

Maybe Yuuya's humanity is having an effect on him. He certainly hopes not. Humanizing Digimon… the public isn't quite ready for that, considering the reaction towards the other way around. They were barely ready for their so-called invasion. Even if it was less of an invasion and more of a peek through a long open window.

He pats the device to quiet him and looks on at Taiga again. His shoulders twitch and Yuuya signs the last paper, hiding a triumphant smile. "Cabin fever?"

"No more than you," he accuses, the words lacking significant bite. His voice is low, tired. Yuuya can hear the nightmare in his words. "Do you want to show me something else?"

Ah that's right, he's given him no answers, has he? Well, it will be quite awkward to, all things considered. The walls have ears. His father has ears, and unfortunately they are still sharp in his age. Still, no point in doing otherwise.

Very well. Perhaps it is time to rectify it. Secrets for secrets.

"Then, shall we take a walk?"

Taiga seems to almost smile. Akiho, however, stiffens. She knows. She always does.

But this is necessary. There is no time to jump through every hoop. Might as well knock a few over.


	8. 8

Taiga had woken up knowing today was going to suck. He just hadn't realized how much.

He trails after Yuuya. Akiho is arguing with her boss in a low voice. He can't be bothered to listen in. It's probably about where they're going. She's a bit of a hen, he's realized over the past day or two, in a good way. Yuuya, whatever he's telling her, doesn't seem to be helping.

Has to be important then. Hum.

Oh wait, he's not getting paid to think.

Taiga pets Digimaru on the app, wishing they could talk, wishing the app wasn't such a stickler pain in the rear end that was only there to pacify rather than actually want anything productive to happen between worlds. His partner is a bad reminder but he's also a best friend who wouldn't put up with this. He puts the thought away and blinks in surprise as the elevator opens. They're… they're outside Dr. Petrov's lab. Well, he supposes he shouldn't be surprised. They are one of the few companies in the Tokyo area looking into Digimon after all. It figures one of the secrets would be there.

_Does Niko know?_

It wouldn't surprise him. They haven't been as close in recent years as they should have been. If this was why, then... well.

It would explain the past few years, wouldn't it?

They enter the lab together. Yuuya strides past a few disgruntled scientists, ignoring them all. Akiho shoots them apologetic looks as she passes. Taiga looks around, puzzled, for Niko. He sees him at the end of the hall. He's putting notes in a computer, eyes narrowed behind the lenses of his glasses, inputting the commands with a recently set in sort of resignation. He makes to stand at the sight of them. Yuuya barely nodded. Nikolai twitches with irritation and Taiga would have laughed if he wasn't so damn tired.

"is  _she_  free?" Yuuya asks simply, hands in his pockets.

Niko glances at Taiga, who shrugs in bewilderment, then back at Yuuya's impassive expression. His eyes widen. Niko's never been good at hiding things. He still doesn't know why his father hired him, knowing that. Then he nods.

"Just give me a minute," he says and rises from his chair. "She needs to eat."

She?

Taiga follows after them, suddenly feeling nausea in his gut. His body starts to shake, thrumming like it had at the sight of that fancy car. As they turn down a corridor, they go to a locked door. Niko swipes in with a tray in his hands. He's looking down. Is it guilt? Is it fear? If he wasn't practically on Yuuya's leash, he would ask.

"Just get recently assigned?" Akiho's voice is soft, trying to be friendly but still probing. Not a good sign. Niko glances up at her and looks away before nodding.

"Yeah. Dad -, ah, the doctor, said I might be better conversation than the other people."

Akiho laughs. "That's probably true. You're not old and fear ridden." Niko laughs, actually laughs, and the nervousness fades from his face a little.

Taiga wants to ask who but his head starts to throb. His heart beats loud enough for his own ears. This… this is… he knows this. He grabs on to the wall as the others keep walking. Then, Akiho turns. Her pale face softens with a smile as she strides back over. Her limbs, almost birdlike, easily prop him back up on his feet

"You too?" She grimaces with sympathy as he dips his head. "Same. It's how I know I'm different, you know." She tugs on a pink lock and he laughs before he can stop himself. He can sympathize. There's orange locks in his hair. "I go in here and  _feel_  her. She's not even trying to hide who she is. She never does. I doubt she can. And they don't notice. Not even Yuuya."

"Not even him?" Taiga thinks back to that car a few days ago. Thinks back to the cold pressure that had reminded him of ruin.

Akiho smiles, and the expression is fond and also broken somehow. Then again, all Digits are broken somehow. "Yeah…. Just don't tell him. Not now. He needs to hear it from the source."

Taiga lets out a weak sigh. "If you say so." There's no point in hiding it in the end, and he senses that she knows that. It just delays the inevitable.

He tries not to think of his parents.

Akiho smiles a little wider. "We're gonna start. Just promise me you won't kill him."

Taiga makes no such promise, especially as they start passing white cell doors. The air grows thicker, gouging his heart.

Then, at a middle door, he hears a soft voice. "Is there a new friend outside?"

He stops dead. No, there is a lilt to this voice, one that he knows very well. It's somewhat older, but he can't forget it, he hears it all of the time.

" _This new friend looks like he could use some water."_

No, it's not her. It's not Mirei, no, he's touched her hand, she is physically real, who is this? He moves to the door, moving past everyone else with ease to peer inside the window.

The girl with purple hair looks up at him with an interested stare. Her hands are bound with red cuffs, her purple-red eyes half-closed as she smiles up at him. Water drips down her hair, over her fox ears, over the slits in her clothes. It drips and pools like blood.

"Hello there new friend," she says. "You have something on you that smells like my wife."

Taiga sees red, and the door cracks beneath his fingers. "You're Sayo, aren't you?"

She smiles a little bit wider.

Taiga turns and not for the last time in his life, the air  _burns._


	9. 9

Taiga wakes to find Niko staring at him and him sitting in a chair. His body groans in protest. His friend's face is grim and behind his glasses, his eyes flicker towards the wall, towards a security camera. Reflexively, Taiga tugs on his wrist. Seconds later, everything hurts. He stops tugging, swearing profusely.

"There's… a shitty delay..." he wheezes. "In the electricity..."

Niko nods. He still isn't speaking. Five minutes by now, he guesses. It's a record.

"You have her," Taiga says, once he catches his breath. "You have… _royalty_ trapped in a padded cell and _suffering_ and you never told me."

Niko shakes his head and sighs. "Just found out when you got here." Seeing the surprise at the word royalty in his friend's face does not make Taiga feel better in the slightest because dear Yggdrasil (sorry!) this was asking for trouble.

"And you didn't _tell me?"_ He can't help but be ticked off a little. He gets him the job, and can't even mention that he's got the very person that Taiga has been searching for for a long time locked in a padded cell and handcuffed.

Niko cracks a grin. "You just tried to kill me, _and_ your boss. If that Akiho chick wasn't used to this, I'd have been paste. And I'm your _friend._ "

The word almost cuts through Taiga's rage. Almost. It doesn't cut it down enough. "I would have missed you," he says, because this is just not getting through to him. "You mean one of the reasons we are at near-war with the other side of the universe is sitting right in this damn building being _poked and prodded_?" He hears his voice rising, feels the security system considering him shocking him anyway.

"News to me." Niko sounds too calm, but Taiga smells exhaustion more than calm. He smells fear, anxiety, anger. That takes his fury down a peg. Niko did not know, and he is not happy. Just like Taiga, he's stuck. "Everything I've heard is that she's a Digit, one that Dad was happy to get, but that's about all."

Taiga scowls. He himself is uneducated, all he knows is what Mirei has told him. That is still enough to make him so damn mad and wanting to sleep for so many years because of the utter stupidity. He slumps back in the surprisingly comfortable chair. He doesn't speak.

Thankfully, Niko can already bring up topics of conversation. "They apparently got her back when Rina disappeared. Not sure if she came willingly or not, but I'm still pretty sure those restraints are like paper to her. She's probably going to break out anytime and kill everyone who has ever poked her with a needle."

Taiga thinks. Six years. She's been stuck in here for six damn years. The time fits.

_I came back to Earth five years ago… I know she's here somewhere, dear friend. I just have to keep looking."_

"So, she's royalty." Niko's voice is trying to remain level as he tosses a mint into his mouth. Taiga's shoulders lower, if only a little. His friend isn't completely taken from him yet. "How? Thought the Digital World was supposed to be free for the most part, no overall hierarchies."

Taiga shrugs. "I dunno that much. Just more than you." Not that that took much in the human world.

"And you've never told me." Niko doesn't sound accusing, just dry.

"You'd tell your father." Taiga points this out and it's not an accusation either.

Niko shrugs and tosses him a water bottle to the not restrained hand. "Wouldn't you?"

"If either of mine wanted me sure." Taiga sips from the bottle, tilts his head back. He doesn't like to think of his dads, or his mom. "Digimon respect power. _Digits_ are rumored to be power themselves." He sips again, feels for Digimaru's squeaking anxiety for him from his pocket. He hadn't ratted him on that, lucky him. "Cause we're human and Digimon, made together. Sometimes it's true. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's through sex. Sometimes, it's through data transfer. Like her, like that girl. She's a Digit blessed by the worlds, by one of the masters of power made by our mythology. Not like me, or my friend. Probably like Yuuya's other guard… did I kill either of them by the way?" He just realizes he should feel bad about that.

Niko shakes his head grimly. "Healed in seconds for him, you missed her."

Taiga snorts. "That's what happens when you hack your own fucking son, I guess." He grimaces. "I need to talk to them."


	10. 10

Taiga knows very little of his family. He knows his father's species, knows his birth mother's name, but that could mean nothing. It does really. It's hard for arbitrary facts to mean anything when the people threw you to the metaphorical wolves.

He assumes that his birth had been an accident. His human mother and father had fought a lot while he was home, before the flames, before _he had had enough shut up brain it was not your fault._ He could only assume they had fought before this, and his mother had been too angry and hurt to think straight and by the time they had made up and married it was too late and there he was, binding them together when he didn't know he wasn't both sides of the equation.

To remain together, they had thrown him away, probably had a normal child that they couldn't look at and think of him with.

Into that hell, where he stole and bit and even burned people's skin, _she_ had found him quivering in pain in the rain, on her church steps. She had kissed his forehead and picked him up like he weighed air (At that point, he likely had), soothing his fever and reviving him, and put her umbrella over him. His child-sized savior.

He says this to Nikolai in slow words and he sees the anger smoldering hot. He doesn't give all of it, not the location or the specifics or Mirei's name. The walls have ears.

The failure of a system you had grown up swaddled in is hard to admit, he knows.

"She has been looking for years," Taiga says, avoiding her name for her own sake. "Even when she finds Digits and sends them where they need to go, she looks. The human world has stolen a messenger from the Iliad Server from the ground. The world is terrified. After all, you could snatch a little god."

Niko beside him is puzzling it all out, putting it together piece by frantic piece. Probably putting more together than Taiga is, but Taiga is focusing more on his breathing. "You're not saying what I think you are, are you?"

"Your dad's not a bad guy." Now that the red is out of his vision, he can actually kinda, sorta, mean that. "He may have no idea. What he is probably sure about is that he's got his hands on someone powerful, someone with a lot of answers. He may think he needs them. He still shouldn't have her locked up."

"Should I have you locked up?" Niko's voice is dry.

Taiga laughs until his ribs hurt, both from the shock and himself. "Probably."


	11. 11

Yuuya pulls away from Akiho's hands, trying to resist the urge to slap them. "Would you stop?"

Akiho rolls her eyes, unappeased. "Don't pull that tough 'I am a future CEO and complete asshole' crap with me, _Yuu-kun_. You've been attacked by digits before. You've never been hit. And now you see why."

"Yes." Yuuya's voice is dry. "Quite glad I hired him."

"To be fair, i'd attack you too." She snorts. "If find out a daughter of an Olympus is captured and handcuffed in a human facility. Oh wait, I did."

Yuuya makes an expression that she equates to a pout. "You didn't try to murder me."

"No, but I considered it." She dabs his face with gold liquid, glad he's stopped questioning how the hell she heals him. She's not ready to tell him the truth. "I had decent parents. You saw his file."

Yuuya shakes out his hands, mostly to deter his partner from trying to do something. "Are you saying I should keep him?"

Akiho raises an eyebrow. "Yes."

Yuuya gives her another look. "You enjoy making me suffer."

"You're rich and paying me for it." Akiho puts her supplies away. "i get my kicks where I can. Besides, I don't like this nonsense either. People aren't meant for cages."

"I know." He smiles. "We're going to change things. I promise you that."

But first, to deal with the angry dragon that had almost slit his throat and eaten his innards.


	12. 12

Taiga didn't look up at the sound of the door. It was his boss, he was sure of it. "Am I getting fired and thrown naked out the door?

Akiho laughed. "Nah, you would have had to actually have gotten through me first." She cracked her knuckles and Taiga almost felt the rush of wind and flames

Taiga looked up at her, unable to contain his mirth. "Yeah, that's clearly not as easy as I thought, _knight_." He stressed the word with all the mocking edge he could muster. It was hard. he was starting to like her.

Akiho's smile widened and he thought he could feel the other two in the room considering ducking out the door. "Oh _damn_ , you figured it out."

"You smell like ashes," he said, trying to be flippant in handcuffs.

She went over and traced a pattern into his cheek. He wanted to bite her cheeky hand for that."And you smell like god killer."

Taiga winced. "Ouch, wound my soul." He laughed after a moment. "Wait, don't have one."

Akiho snickered. "Oh please, you have a soul. It's just buried in your fashion sense."

"I don't like you. Can I get a new coworker?" Taiga turned pleading eyes onto Yuuya, who recovered himself astonishingly quickly. Yes, he was already forgiven, thank Yggdrasil. (Sorry!)

He earned a mocking smile, shaky though it was. "Afraid not. Consider it a punishment for trying to kill me."

Damn that smirk. He had the sudden urge to obey it. Stupid rich kids.

"The room has ears," Niko warned, looking up at the cameras and at Taiga's cuffs.

Yuuya sighed. "Too right, it does. Then, let's break those cuffs and go somewhere private. All of us." He smiled mockingly at Niko. "We have a debriefing to attend."

"Fucking rich kids," Niko muttered dryly, going to unlock the cuffs.

Taiga snorted. "So close to having him for dinner."

"I'm sure he wants that from somebody." Niko rapped his goggles. "You're always thinking about it."

Taiga felt his sides ache again. Laughing hurt, damn it.


	13. 13

"No."

Akiho grins wryly at Yuuya. "Told you he wouldn't do it." Taiga wants to scowl at her for being smug but he can't, She probably takes the piss out of Yuuya every chance she has. I guess if she's paid for it (oh wait, he's also paid for it), then why not?

Still. "Not happening." Taiga shakes his head. "I won't lead you to Mirei. Not yet. Not until you spill. She trusted me. She saved my life. I won't give her away to you, not until you tell me why." Never mind that he told the cameras she was real, there was no actual path to find her.

Yuuya looks him over. He really does look like Taiga hadn't just tried to roast his neck open with his nails, however that worked. That's not awkward at all. "Then where would be safest to talk? My father has a tendency to eavesdrop."

"In your own house?"

Niko makes a snort. "Especially in his own house, Taiga. Kuga Kenzo is one of the most paranoid men on the planet. He broke the record of most death threats in one day for that Digimon app he made Dad design." He kept walking, leading htem out of the building. His coat had been left strewn over his chair. "The safest place I can think of is a place he knows Yuuya won't go. And even then."

Taiga bit his lip. "Then… how about this? Talk as we walk and if you're not throwing me, I'll take you to where we can see her." With her permission of course because duh.

Yuuya doesn't hesitate. "Fair enough."

They walk, and Yuuya waits until they are lost in the crowd. "My father was a teenager when the first Digital Gate opened, when the first appearances occurred. It was nothing very special. None of the first encounters were special. They wouldn't be. There was a language barrier. It wasn't until five years later, when the children started being born, that people started to panic."

Yuuya glances at Niko, who winced for reasons Taiga didn't know about. "Yeah, it was one thing for people to get in contact with the supernatural, but to procreate by them? Yeah, no, that was weird." Niko pauses. "It's the unnaturalness of it that caused the governments to reach out. They were trying to stem the tide of the whole thing. As this went on, people went between worlds and ended up never coming back. They should have, apparently, and thus, they were claimed to be spirited away and killed."

Taiga thinks of green hair, one of the shameless first children of Digimon, rumoredly. The one who called herself a Digit by name with pride the day it broke out.

Yuuya nods thoughtfully. "The government was more cautious than the people, who as you see, made their decisions as a whole very quickly. The government had to compromise. Thus Digimon were banned, but Digits were not. Shinomiya Rina attempted to escape, to flee these people."

Taiga remembers this. He hadn't been there, but he had seen it. He had seen the starlight explosions from faraway in an abandoned store. "What does that have to do with Sayo?" He doesn't mean to be impatient, but as far as he knows, Rina is dead, long dead. A portal accident. Because of humans.

"The newspapers said that she died," Akiho supplies. "Violently. As an example. There was nothing left. She didn't."

Taiga almost stopped walking. Niko does stop. "The hell you mean she didn't." His eyes are wide. "No one told me that."

"Course not." Akiho's taken over the story and she's much more relaxed. "They figured your dad would. And anyway… he wasn't there. I was. I was with Sayo when she came here."

Just as Akiho takes a breath to continue, Taiga presses a hidden button on the V-Pet and doesn't let go until he hears the sound of static.

Mirei doesn't speak. She listens. She waits.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was... interesting. It was this or have this fic go nowhere I guess. Anyway, here goes. I think I'm almost done... oh no wait, I still have like: four more and site editing to do. Curse me and productivity. Anyway, please read and review!
> 
> Challenges: AU Diversity Boot Camp (reboot!AU) prompt 15 'abortive', Pairing Diversity Boot Camp prompt 40 'security', Gameverse Boot Camp prompt 29 'passenger', and Diversity Writing Challenge (Digimon) I58. Write a dystopian/utopian fic.


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